Stories from the Body #1 participatory performance for Louise Bourgeois' exhibition opening

Stories from the Body (SFTB) is a performance series and vehicle for re-tracing WeiZen’s personal ancestral lineages, disrupted over the past century as her forebears journeyed from Southern Fujian in China to Java, Singapore and Malaysia.  The performance image in SFTB#1 is a re-imagined hybrid of the mysterious puyong and pontianak entities from the Malaysian folk-lore.  First performed in Indonesia (2014), then at Woodford Academy (the Blue Mountain's oldest surviving building, in 2015), and on Ogijima Island, Japan, as part of Setouchi Triennale Art Festival (2016). In 2019, SFTB#1 was expanded to include a large mechanised sculptural robe suspended above the performer for the Blue Mountains City Gallery, Katoomba. For the opening program of Has the Day Invaded the Night or Has the Night Invaded the Day? at AGNSW, I expanded SFTB #1 by incorporating the public park, footpath and pools, relating to Bourgeois’ 'Maman 1999' sculpture in front of the South Wing, which then led passersby and the audience from the North Wing’s forecourt, circular stairs down to the lower level. The work refined the choreographic system for incorporating handmade bellow-pipes and pipe objects for audience members to activate the sounds that resonated with the performance.